I.2 A Few Notes on Terminology Employed:
Let us attempt to put the Digital
Revolution in a historical context; prior to the millennium, analog technology was the standard for
communications industries around the world; today, a little more than a decade
later, digital technology is the
almost universal standard for these industries. While a digital copy might
appear identical to an analog original, it is inherently different; in simple
terms, analog media is linear, and
sequential, while digital media is non-linear.
These distinctions are fundamental to understanding digital technology, which
was first mentioned in a paper written in 1936 by a brilliant British
mathematician named Alan Turing, perhaps best known for cracking the German
Enigma Code in World War II. Working with a theoretical computer model, Turing
proved that a digital computer could be “ programmed
to perform the function of any other information-processing device."[1]
The subject of this thesis is the new
media form called Digital Documentary; one
cannot properly assess the impact of this new medium without putting it in the
greater context of what is now called multimedia.
Traditional academic distinctions between analog media forms such as print,
film, and even television are not valid when transferred to multimedia[2].
For example, in film studies, documentary
has generally been categorized as a genre
of the film medium. What, then, is the relationship between documentary film and digital documentary?
The answer is that they may be
aesthetic cousins, employing the same general aesthetic conventions, and
subject to but they are fundamentally
different media forms. For example, a digital documentary copy of a documentary
film such as Robert Flaherty’s classic Nanook
of the North, might appear to be identical, but, in reality, as this thesis
shall attempt to demonstrate, a digital documentary is as radically different
from a documentary film as an internet blog is from a traditional newspaper. The content might appear identical, but the
medium is different.
As shall also be seen, the entire
process of documentary production from financing, research through to
distribution has been dramatically changed; new creative paradigms are rapidly
evolving, as are new business models.
Indeed, the very terminology of
traditional cinema studies is in a state of flux to keep pace with the Digital
Revolution. While this problem is hardly unique to cinema studies, the term documentary itself has been the subject
of heated debate, thus further muddying the water; this latter debate shall be
dealt with in some detail in Chapter III, Towards an Operational Definition of
Documentary.
To minimize confusion between the terms analog and digital documentary , let us from now on, call analog documentary documentary
film , and the new hybrid form, digital documentary. [3]
The term “ Digital Film”, and variations thereof, such as “ digital
documentary film” is fundamentally incorrect; a digitized copy of a
film might seem identical to the original, but it can never be an analog
film.
Otherwise, for general purposes, this
thesis shall employ the terminology used by American film critic and cinema scholar
J. Hoberman, who makes the following distinctions between the terms cinema, movies, motion pictures and film: “Cinema means a form of recorded and hence repeatable moving image and, for the most
part, synchronized recorded sound. Television kinescopes and TV since videotape
are cinematic; so is YouTube. The terms motion pictures or movies imply a
projected image; film refers to movies that are produced on or projected as
celluloid (or its derivatives) and hence have some basis in photography.”[4]
I.3 Statement of Purpose:
While there are a number of books and
studies on the effects of the digital revolution on society at large, to date, there
has been no definitive study to date on the impact of digital technology on the
genre of documentary. Since the power of visual media is almost
universally acknowledged, and since documentary is in a state of such rapid
flux, it is hoped that this study will be of both relevance and interest to
institutions, cinematic scholars and documentary practitioners around the
world as they seek to cope with the
challenges of digital technology.
Please also note that there are already
a few excellent books on documentary film production techniques on the market
today; Alan Rosenthal’s “ Writing,
Directing and Producing Documentary Films and Videos” [5]
and Michael Rabiger’s “Directing the
Documentary”[6]
are particularly recommended.
In this context, I would also like to
acknowledge an inspirational debt to Professor Gene Sharp; written in 1996 as a
blueprint for democratic change in Burma, his best
known book “ From Dictatorship to
Democracy – A Conceptual Framework for Liberation”, along with his other
works, has played a major, albeit somewhat underpublicized,
role in non-violent democratic movements around the world from Eastern Europe
to Burma.
Professor Sharp’s work affirms the
power of universal democratic ideals , and , in addition to providing practical
scenarios for positive, non-violent change, also give one cause for both
optimism and hope regarding the future of mankind.
If this thesis can follow in that
illustrious tradition, it will have achieved its goals.[7]
Statement of Purpose:
The goal of this thesis is to assess the immediate practical
and aesthetic effects of digital technology on Documentary Film , and to show
how the genre of Documentary Film has
been transformed into a new hybrid media genre of Multimedia called Digital
Documentary.
In the process, this thesis shall attempt to show the
aesthetic conventions shared by both genres of documentary, and to create an
operational definition of documentary based on those conventions that might be
valid for both the documentary film and digital documentary genres.
By helping to clarify both distinctions and similarities,
this thesis seeks :
1)
To help
administrators and decision makers better understand the phenomenon popularly
known as The Digital Revolution.
2)
To help educators
understand that what is called The Digital Divide is a new reality which can only be accepted, rather than
feared.
3)
To help multimedia
artists interested in documentary to appreciate how the Documentary Film
Tradition might be relevant to their work. [8]
4)
To encourage the
development of capacity building in the craft of documentary in the developing
world, so the people all around the world have the opportunity for
self-expression in Multimedia.
5)
To encourage the
democratization of information media by the growth of grassroots Digital
Documentary Magazines, which we shall call Digital Newsreel.
Chapter II will attempt to place Digital Documentary in the macro context
of
the Politics
of International Mass Communications and The Evolution of Digital Multimedia.
In the wake of the decolonization of the 1960’s, there were many heads of
government and other administrators who objected to what they saw as Western
domination of global media, and they demanded what they termed The New World Information Order, which
was intended as a more equitable redistribution of global media resources.
Two decades later, they got the Digital Revolution. As shall be seen, it
was a lot more than these political leaders had bargained for.
[1]
Nicholas Carr ( is google making us
stupid?) in The Digital Divide,
Edited by Mark Bauerlein. Jeremy P.Tarcher/Penguin, 2011. P.69
[3] It
is important to bear in mind prior to 2000, there were also analog video documentaries, mostly shot
on Betacam videotape, along with other short-lived formats.
[4]
J.Hoberman ( Film After Film – Or, What
Became of 21st Century Cinema?) Verso, 2012, p.3
[5]
Alan Rosenthal ( Writing, Directing and
Producing Documentary Films and Videos)Third Edition, Southern Illinois
University Press, 2002
[6]
Michael Rabiger (Directing the
Documentary)Focal Press, 2004
[7]
Gene Sharp ( From Dictatorship to
Democracy – A Conceptual Framework for Liberation)
Committee for the Restoration of Democracy to Burma,
Bangkok, 1993
[8] Since
an unfortunate byproduct of the speed of the Digital Revolution has been a
tendency to forget all historical precedent, a secondary goal of this
dissertation is to discover elements in the analog documentary film tradition
that might be of particular relevance to the new digital documentary.
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